Easy, But Is It Legal?

Wired.com poses the question whether it‘s a crime to tap into an available Wi-Fi network. Let’s hope it is for their sake, as they apparently did all of the reporting for the piece over an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Wired doesn’t arrive at a definitive conclusion, although it notes that unauthorized use technically violates the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. And of course, that raises the question of what is “authorized” exactly. There’s a suggestion in the story that if the network isn’t password protected, it’s an open network. I don’t know. I think if I leave my house unlocked, you’re still trespassing if you walk in and make a snack. But maybe I’m just old school.